Impeach Bush-Quemada & Cheney!

Ok, breaking the silence here. President Bill Clinton, he of the rosy face, white pompadour, careful parser of words... was dragged through impeachment procedures with the rest of us primarily because he had sexual relations with "that" woman, and lied about it. Definitely not nice. From all accounts the situation was consensual, and both parties seemed to have enjoyed it at the time.

Enter Mr. Bush, illegal warmonger, prevaricator (sorry, I mean liar!), shredder of the U.S. Constitution, approver of torture in the face of its clear international and national illegality, liar about the use of such torture methods, creator of untold damage to U.S. reputation, image, values, legacy, directly responsible for untold deaths... refusing to stop waterboarding... yet avowed religious person (grand inquisitor)...

...but he remains impeachment-free.

Why is impeachment not plastered over the front pages of our newspapers? What gives? Is enjoying fellatio and lying about it a more dastardly deed than breaking national and international law, acting as grand inquisitor, causing the death of thousands, lying about war and torture, and sullying the name, legacy, and reputation of the nation? How come one set of transgressions meets the "high crimes and misdemeanors" bar but not the other one?

It is high time we stopped being such moral nincompoops. Mr. Bush (and Mr. Cheney) deserves to be, at a minimum, impeached. The U.S. was founded by some brave folks who sought to throw off the chains of oppression imposed by a tyrant who thought he could do as he pleased. Now we have in power a man who, in all his religiosity, has in essence declared himself to be grand inquisitor and above both national and international law. Bush-quemada we should call him. In my book Mr. Bush deserves to be run out of office and tried as war criminal.

Not being religious myself I'm not certain about this, but I think that when Jesus said love thy neighbor, and love thine enemy (Matthew 5:38-44), I'm pretty sure he did not mean torture them, waterboard them, lie about it, rinse and repeat.

So, what can religious leaders do, now that it is known that Mr. Bush broke the law, lied about it, authorized, and has reserved the right to authorize again, such heinous acts? How can he be a good Christian and continue this behavior?

Folks, allowing this to stand will lead to serious consequences, and might very well destroy any semblance of the legitimacy of human rights. Ironic no, given the last push by the U.S.

P.S. I think the "anti-christ" that scriptures mention, and religious folks fear, is not an evil person to come. It is nothing more than our complacency in the face of evil, our complicity in withholding our moral outrage in the face of such suffering caused. The overturning of the moral voice of love, peace, justice, human dignity, the destroying of our humanity. Of course, it is also those whom we allow to get away with such acts.

Comments

[enji]

the question I ask, why in the face of such obvious criminality, are the House and Senate too scared to bring impeachment to the table?

and why have the politicians in our country come to look like this?:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2008

[Justin Whitaker]

It was Elie Wiesel who wisely stated: The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.

I'm with ya, emailing friends/senators now.

[Behzod Sirjani]

"Not being religious myself I'm not certain about this, but I think that when Jesus said love thy neighbor, and love thine enemy (Matthew 5:38-44), I'm pretty sure he did not mean torture them, waterboard them, lie about it, rinse and repeat."

Excellent argument Nacho. I've followed in Justin's path and passed this article along to many politically active, as well as politically uninformed friends.

I think the major issue is that too many people have simply given up and written off Bush as an, for lack of a better term, idiot, and fail to see what their actions can do. Right now, we are in a sea of political turmoil where many members of congress are fighting to keep their spots, and for one reason or another, are choosing not to fight this injustice. A tragedy indeed.

Another issue could be that conservatives (and perhaps liberals as well) feel that changing presidents in times of war or crisis would be a bad thing, and removing the president would send bad signals around the world. (I personally feel like Bush sends enough bad signals by simply opening his mouth and speaking, so his removal would be quite welcome.)

In closing, well done Nacho. Another article to help crank the cogs in my head.

[Fini]

The CIA director Michael Hayden has tried to defuse the controversy. He claims that, since 2002, aggressive interrogation methods in which a prisoner believes he is about to die have been used on only about 30 of the 100 al-Qai’da suspects being held by the US. Meanwhile, a CIA official told The New York Times waterboarding had only been used three times. The Bush administration has suggested that the interrogation of al-Qai’da’s second-in-command, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was a success thanks to the technique, and used this to justify continued aggressive interrogations of suspects in secret CIA prisons.
That the Bush-Cheney administration has squandered our human and material resources in this so-called war against terror is a calamity that will affect us for decades. But that they have blown away our moral capital, that they have compromised the principles that define us as a nation of a terror, that is a tragedy.
I think that the lawmakers should put their money where their mouth is. If its not torture, let everyone who supports it go for one session showing us how reasonable it is!! Talk is cheap, step up and just do it!!

With the proliferation of the Rapture-Ready and the 'science' of creationism, and torture declared non-torture, we are already more than half-way back to the Dark Ages.